Building a 60-metre-high telecommunications tower just 900 metres from the Olds Hospital and Care Centre in the path of incoming and outgoing medical transport helicopters would be a bad idea, an Imperial Drive resident said.
Calgary-based Cavalier Land filed a development permit application on May 30 to build the tower for Rogers Communications on a property at 6102 46 St. (Highway 27) between the highway's intersections with Imperial Way and 65 Avenue.
Town of Olds staff expect the application to go to the town's municipal planning commission on Aug. 15 for a decision.
Harry Wanjoe, who lives on Imperial Drive just more than half-a-kilometre from the site where the proposed tower would be built, said he's worried the tower is in the flight path of air ambulances coming and going from the hospital and thinks the tower should be built outside town boundaries.
“Why would you stick something like that up in the air, right in the heart of town?” he said.
He added he sees many helicopters descending or ascending on a regular basis in the airspace where the tower would be built.
Wanjoe is also upset that the town did not do more to let more residents in the area around the site of the proposed tower know about the development application.
“That's what really ticked me off,” he said. “The only way I found it was one of the neighbours got mad because nobody knew about it.”
Werner Fischer, the town's planning manager, said there was a “hiccup” with the circulation of information about the proposed tower.
He said he issued instructions for information about the development application to be sent out in June to businesses and residents living within a 200-metre radius of the site where the proposed tower would be built.
For whatever reason, Fischer added, that information did not reach residential areas and so a second circulation of information about the proposed project went out on July 9 to property owners within a 400-metre radius of the site.
Property owners had until July 24 to submit written comments about the proposed project to the town.
Fischer said he has received several phone calls about the project from local residents and Wanjoe said he wrote to the mayor about his concerns.
The planning commission will look at the proposed tower's proximity to the hospital, Fischer added, and town staff have spoken with federal aviation agencies about the project.
He also said staff have “flagged some things that would have to be dealt with” regarding the proposed development, but would not provide further details.
A request for comment from Cavalier Land was deferred to a Rogers Communications spokeswoman who did not respond to the Olds Albertan before press time.
